\ Cockayne. — Observations on Coastal Vegetation. 337 



been the determining Jtactoi in change of form. The colour of 

 the shoots of Leptocarpus simplex se^ms to vary with the en- 

 vironment, it being dull-green in the salt marsh but more or 

 less red in the drier ground. Calystegia soldanella, as already 

 noted, is prostrate u^^ually, but where a support is available it 

 assumes the climbing habit. Veronica elliptica is usually a tall 

 shrub, but Mr. H. J. Matthews informs me it is a low-growing 

 prostrate plant at West Wanganui Inlet, its most northern 

 habitat. The form of this plant, also, as I have shown 

 (14a; p. 371) is different on the Open Bay Islands from 

 elsewhere on the coast. Senecio laulus is a luxuriant plant 

 with pinnatifid leaves when growing on gravel shores or clay 

 banks, but when on dry rocks its leaves become small and 

 irequently entire. Finally, Cotula coronopifolia has both a land 

 and a water form. 



16. Details as to the Inland-coastal Plants. 



With regard to those plants which belong also to inland 

 iormations, the most important will be d^alt with in the special 

 part of this series of papers. But here it must be pointed out 

 that where climatic conditions permit the lowland forest to 

 reach the shor3, the coastal plants are much increased in number 

 by many forest plants which are not truly maritime. Thes3 

 not only spread on to the beach, but may occupy rocks which 

 were formerly a part of the mainland. In this latter case the 

 plants are remnants of a former forest, and it is remarkable 

 how some of them, which have no special adaptations, can 

 exist in positions fully exposed to wind and sea-spray. One 

 striking example may be cited. At Jackson's Bay, South West- 

 land, stands on the beach a lock which is an island at high 

 water, but can be approached at low tide. On its summit is a 

 dense growth of Coriaria ruscifolia, Nothopanax arboreum, Co- 

 prosnia foetidissima, Veronica salicifolia, Phormium tenax, &c. ; 

 while on a covering of peaty soil on the face of the rock, below 

 the above, is a dense mat of the charming liliaceous Enargea 

 marginata, a plant of the forest-floor in certain parts of the 

 North and South Islands and Stewart Island. Leaving out of 

 consideration the above class of plants, there are also true 

 coastal forests — or, more properly speaking, belts of trees and 

 groves, some of whose members are much more frequent on the 

 coast than elsewhere, and many of which perhaps ought to be 

 included amongst the coastal plants proper — at any rate, such 

 are true coastal formations : Myoporum Icetum (Myoporacece), 

 Urtica ferox {Urticacece), Dodoncea viscosa {Sapindacece), Cory no- 

 carpus IcBvigata (Cornyocarpacece), Grisdinia lucida {CornaceoB), 



